Major sporting events (Olympic Games, Football World Cup) are significant markers of the “zeitgeist”. They indicate in particular how the host country wishes to present itself to the world and the values it promotes.
In this regard, the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, for example, displayed and affirmed China’s ambitions as a superpower. More recently, the Football World Cup in Qatar in 2022 wanted to show that this small Middle Eastern state was “cool” like its air-conditioned stadiums!
« Ethos trumpien »
In this register, the Fifa Football World Cup, organized from June 11 to July 19, 2026 jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico, promises to be a particularly enlightening vintage, which illustrates what a “Trumpian ethos” could be, knowing that the vast majority of matches will take place in the United States and that Fifa displayed remarkable sycophancy by presenting last December to the President of the United States (POTUS) a “peace prize » specially created for him.
First of all, for the first time, the competition will bring together 48 teams instead of 32, leading to both an increase in the number of matches (104 matches instead of 64 during the last edition in 2002) and a significant drop in the quality of the matches in the first rounds.
Behind the alibi of “universal sport”, the objective is to multiply television broadcasts and therefore mechanically to increase the amount of TV rights, estimated at 3 billion dollars for the 2022 edition.
Advertising breaks in defiance of the game
But as if that wasn’t enough, Fifa invented the concept of a “cooling break”. These three-minute breaks will take place halfway through each half, dividing games into quarters.
These breaks, which will take place independently of the weather conditions and the ambient temperature and which therefore have nothing to do with a possible “preservation” of the players, will give the broadcasters of the event the possibility of programming advertising breaks during the period, in a logic where the sport is organized – through permanent cutting – for and in the service of advertising, which is typical of sport in the United States.
Players and (TV) spectators will therefore have to endure these interruptions with disregard for the game and its fluidity, but business takes precedence over everything.
$2 million tickets for the final
It is so important that the price of tickets has been subject to galloping inflation between the Qatar edition and that of 2026. Depending on the stage of the competition and the category of tickets, we are talking about a multiplication of 2 to 4 in prices in four years, and it will cost more than 2,000 dollars to attend the final in category 4.
For a European or African fan, this means that the overall cost of participating in this World Cup will be $10,000 and more. It’s not the few cheap tickets put on sale under pressure that will change the situation…
The height of indecency, tickets for 2 million dollars were even put on sale for the final. And, icing on the cake, the transportation authorities of Massachusetts and New Jersey, which provide services to the stadiums of New York and Boston, announced a 10-fold increase in their fares.
We could almost laugh when we think that Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa – which continues to present itself as a non-profit organization – spoke of this edition as the most “inclusive” World Cup ever organized. Inclusion for millionaires is a “Trumpian” concept in essence.
The climate, a non-subject
The other shocking aspect of this World Cup is its geographical dimension and therefore its ecological impact. One might think that the world’s number 1 sport aims to be exemplary on global issues such as climate change.
We could have dreamed – without even talking about a more radical reflection on this type of event – of a more compact competition format, on a restricted territory, with few cities hosting the matches, therefore limiting the carbon impacts linked to transport.
But exactly the opposite was done: more teams, therefore more supporters traveling to and on American territory, more matches and therefore more travel once there, and an organization over three countries representing an area of almost 20 million km2, or more than 13% of the world’s land surface, and distances greater than 4,000 km from east to west and from north to south between the different host cities.
A group of scientists (Scientists for global responsibility) estimated that the total emissions linked to the event would be 9 million tonnes of CO2, compared to 5 million tonnes from the Qatari edition, making it by far the most polluting World Cup in history.
In fact, we would have liked to clearly indicate that “we don’t care” about climate change, that we would not have gone about it any other way. Here too, all this is totally convergent with the “Trumpian” vision on the climate (“drill baby drill”), that is to say a non-subject.
Obsession anti-immigration
Finally, the United States administration announced last January its intention to strengthen controls for obtaining tourist visas to enter the territory, and the measure could come into force before the competition in a paradoxical timing to say the least.
The possibility for the authorities to ask visitors to reveal the history of their social networks was notably mentioned, knowing that immigration agents (Customs and border protection) already have the legal power to request access to digital devices.
Here it is indeed the vision of the foreigner as a potential danger which is at work in the continuation of the anti-immigration obsession of the Trump II administration.
This World Cup thus presents itself as an event for the happy few, very far from the issues of our time and a truly “inclusive” vision of sport. In short, a reflection of the Trump presidency and his policies. We can only hope that this will be one of its last equally important manifestations.
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